"Chains," Vocabulary from Chapters 23-33 35 words

The question of who gets to be free is addressed in "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson. A thirteen year old girl, Isobel, sees that Freedom is all anyone can talk about during the Revolutionary War. Isobel realizes, however, that as a slave girl she will be denied freedom no matter who wins the war. So she decides to do something about it.

The Latin "repugnare" means "to fight against"--ideally, if people find an activity repugnant (most people would agree that adjective fits the buying and selling of children), they should fight against it.

This was the material used in the complex dresses women wore during the novel's eighteenth century setting. The word's Italian root "crino" suggests that one of the materials used to stiffen the fabric was horsehair.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

She had changed into a peach-colored
crinoline gown and was pulling on lace gloves.

While the chosen definition is stirred up by the question, the example sentence's use of "conscience" suggests more of a place for feelings than the feeling itself; thus, the obsolete definition of "consciousness" might be a better fit here.

Compare with "brook" in the list for Chapters 1-11--although the verbs are synonymous, the levels of tolerance are not, since foolishness, when compared to maggots in living flesh, seems less unpleasant and easier to put up with.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

"But with this heat and the flies, you just know the wounds will be maggoty by morning, and if there’s one thing I can’t
abide, it’s the sight of maggots in living flesh.”

Nowadays, the word "cobbler" is more likely to bring up an image of "a pie made of fruit with rich biscuit dough on top" than a description of a job that no longer exists--this is a vivid image of how much sweeter life is in America since the eighteenth century.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

One man, found with rosin and brimstone-tipped slivers of wood in his pocket, was tossed into a burning
cobbler shop, another was quickly executed with a bayonet through the chest.